The source behind the leak of the top-secret NSA surveillance program – one of the most significant leaks in US history – has been revealed. A 29-year-old former CIA contractor Edward Snowden has fled to Hong Kong to avoid the fate of Bradley Manning.

The former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee
of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, had asked the
Guardian to reveal his identity and had never planned on hiding.

“I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have
done nothing wrong,” he said in an interview.

Snowden predicts that the government will launch an investigation
against him, however it was “a matter of principle” for
him because he believes that the people should know how the
government intrudes into their privacy. According to Snowden he
acted out of a desire to protect "basic liberties" and to
“send a message to government that people will not be
intimidated.”

“I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy
privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around
the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly
building,” said the whistleblower.

Snowden leaked top-secret documents to The Guardian that included
the existence of a US National Security Agency’s extensive spying
program called PRISM. The program was designed to collect
information about digital communications allowing real-time
online surveillance of US citizens.

According to the leaked information it gives “direct
access” to files from the servers of major internet companies
including Google and Facebook. The spying program was allegedly
targeted to identify “folks who might engage in
terrorism,” according to US president Barack Obama, who noted
that American citizens should be prepared to trade some of
their freedoms for more safety.

Snowden said he is willingly sacrificing his very comfortable
life with a family he loves and a stable career with a salary of
around $200,000. "My sole motive is to inform the public as to
that which is done in their name and that which is done against
them."

A former MI5 agent Annie Machon believes that Snowden will be the
first of a series of modern whistleblowers who learnt from the
terrible tragedy of the Bradley Manning case.

“The way he has run the whole exposure and disclosure of the
crimes of the NSA and what they are doing against the American
people and the rest of the world people has been very
sophisticated. And I take heart from that. The fact that he has
fled the USA, he is now in Hong Kong. The fact that he has been
working with journalists of Glenn Greenwald's caliber,”
Machon told RT. “I think it’s been very, very well done. I
would call this Whistleblowing 2.0.”

The revelation of the whistleblowers identity comes after NSA
filed a leak investigation report on Sunday to the Justice
Department for it to launch a criminal case into the breach of
security. The leaks also come amid US Army Private Bradley
Manning’s trial on charges of transmitting classified materials
connected with US military operations abroad to the WikiLeaks
website. The Obama administration has aggressively pursued
whistleblowers and Snowden expects the government to pursue him,
however he states that he “is not afraid , because this is the
choice I've made.”

Whistleblower’s asylum of choice?

Until three weeks ago Snowden worked in a NSA office in Hawaii.
There he made final preparations, copied the final set of
documents he planned to leak and on May 20 boarded a flight to
Hong Kong. At work he explained that he needed time off for
treatment for epilepsy, a condition he was diagnosed with last
year.

Snowden told the paper that he chose Hong Kong because it is the
place that could and would “resist the dictates of the US
government” and the city has “a spirited commitment to
free speech and the right of political dissent.”

He has been living in a hotel ever since and only left the room
about three times during his entire stay as he is afraid of being
spied on.

“I could be rendered by the CIA. I could have people come
after me. Or any of the third-party partners. They work closely
with a number of other nations. Or they could pay off the Triads.
Any of their agents or assets,” he said. “We have got a
CIA station just up the road – the consulate here in Hong Kong –
and I am sure they are going to be busy for the next week.”

“And that is a concern I will live with for the rest of my
life, however long that happens to be.”

Snowden anticipates that he will be charged with breaking the
Espionage Act and helping the enemies, “but that can be used
against anyone who points out how massive and invasive the system
has become" the whistleblower notes.

'Most CIA secrets are about people, not machines or systems’

Snowden was discharged from the army after a training accident,
and got a job as a security guard at the NSA facility at the
University of Maryland in College Park. His next role was with
the CIA on IT security. In 2007 he was stationed in Geneva,
Switzerland, where he maintained computer network security for
the CIA.

Snowden was brought up originally in Elizabeth City, North
Carolina before his family moved to Maryland. He was not an
excellent pupil as he never graduated from the school he
attended, though he later obtained his GED. In 2003, he
enlisted in the US army as he wanted to fight in Iraq and
“help free people from oppression”. Though after the army his
political beliefs shifted as he understood that he was
mistaken about the purpose of the war. “Most of the people
training us seemed pumped up about killing Arabs, not helping
anyone,” he said.

“Much of what I saw in Geneva really disillusioned me about
how my government functions and what its impact is in the
world,” he told The Guardian. “I realized that I was part
of something that was doing far more harm than good.”

Snowden said that in Switzerland the idea of leaking government
information first came to mind, however he hoped that the
election of Barack Obama in 2008 would reform the government’s
policy.

“Most of the secrets the CIA has are about people, not
machines and systems, so I didn't feel comfortable with
disclosures that I thought could endanger anyone.”

Within the next three years he came to the conclusion that the
NSA's surveillance would soon, ultimately, pose an
“existential threat to democracy.” He chose to blow the
whistle in spite of the risks involved.

“I don't want to live in a world where there's no
privacy and therefore no room for intellectual exploration and
creativity” the whistleblower told the paper.